What is CEMCA ? Created in 1983, the CEMCA, a Joint Research Unit of the French Research Institutes Overseas (UMIFRE16), has two institutional umbrellas : the French Ministry for European and Foreign Affairs ( MEAE) and the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS). Together with the IFEA in Peru, the CEMCA is integrated in the CNRS Latin America Research Service Unit (USR) 3337 and participates in international research collaborations structured around fours research themes and common projects, all sharing the importance of the ‘terrain’ ie. fieldwork or primary data research. CEMCA is located in two sites – its main centre in Mexico City and its Central-American office in Guatemala City. Both are open to the public and have their own documentation centre. The centre currently counts five statutory full-time researchers, 30 PhD students and 40 associate researchers. With its administrative and technical staff team of 12 people, CEMCA supports research and operates as a logistical base for any French or Overseas researcher or institution wishing to use its services. CEMCA is also a publishing house, regularly leading joint publications with Mexican and Central-American universities and research institutions. Its publications have increasingly developed digitally with over a hundred titles available online in full electronic version on the CNRS Open Edition Books portal. CEMCA also publishes TRACE, a peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary journal dedicated to the study of Mexican and Central American processes and social dynamics.